–House GOP Plan Replaces Sequestration With $300 Billion In Cuts
–House Budget Chief Ryan: ‘We Need to Get Out of This Debt Crisis’
–Rep Van Hollen: GOP Plan Is ‘Lopsided,’ Need ‘Responsible Alternative’

By John Shaw

WASHINGTON (MNI) – The House approved Thursday a Republican plan to
replace about $100 billion in across-the-board spending cuts in the 2013
fiscal year with a package of more than $300 billion in 10-year spending
savings.

The House approved the package on a mostly party line 218 to 199,
though 16 Republicans voted to oppose the bill and one voted present.
Only one Democrat supported the bill.

The plan was crafted by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan
who called it a “small step in the right direction.”

“We need to get out of this debt crisis,” Ryan said.

Ryan’s plan reduces spending on food stamps, curtails medical
malpractice claims, repeals part of the Dodd-Frank law, requires federal
employees to contribute more for their pensions, cuts the child tax
credit program, and repeals the Social Services block grant program.

Ryan said the package includes sensible reforms, including
important savings from entitlement programs.

Rep. Chris Van Hollen, the ranking Democrat on the House Budget
panel, agreed that Congress should pass legislation to prevent
across-the board spending cuts from being implemented next year.

But he said Ryan’s plan was “lopsided” and does more harm than
good.

“We need a responsible alternative,” to across-the-board spending
cuts, Van Hollen said, but argued that Ryan’s plan is deeply flawed.

Van Hollen said the across-the-board spending cuts should be
replaced by a “balanced approach to deficit reduction.”

He said a blend of spending savings and revenue hikes should be
used to offset the sequester. Van Hollen’s alternative would curtail
some agriculture subsidies, close tax benefits for oil and gas firms,
and increases taxes on millionaires.

The House rule did not allow for a vote on Van Hollen’s plan.

The action in the House is expected to be the first step in a
prolonged battle to replace across-the-board spending cuts with
alternative savings.

Over nine years, about $1.2 trillion in across-the-board cuts are
mandated by the sequestration process which was mandated by the failure
of Congress’s Super Committee last fall. The intention was to force a
bipartisan deficit reduction package, but both sides now want to
overturn the drastic cuts.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Thursday the
across-the-board spending cuts mandated by last year’s debt ceiling
agreement should go forward unless Republicans are willing to use new
revenues to replace part of the coming spending cuts.

He said he is “not about to walk away” from the sequestration
process unless the GOP is willing to take a balanced approach to
replacement legislation.

Reid later called the sequestration process a difficult but
balanced approach to cutting the deficit.

** MNI Washington Bureau: (202) 371-2121 **

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